Why pens have rubbery grips.

The process by which human fingers gives rise to stable contacts with smooth, hard objects is surprisingly slow. Using high-resolution imaging, we found that, when pressed against glass, the actual contact made by finger pad ridges evolved over time following a first-order kinetics relationship. This evolution was the result of a two-stage coalescence process of microscopic junctions made between the keratin of the stratum corneum of the skin and the glass surface. This process was driven by the secretion of moisture from the sweat glands, since increased hydration in stratum corneum causes it to become softer. Saturation was typically reached within 20 s of loading the contact, regardless of the initial moisture state of the finger and of the normal force applied. Hence, the gross contact area, frequently used as a benchmark quantity in grip and perceptual studies, is a poor reflection of the actual contact mechanics that take place between human fingers and smooth, impermeable surfaces. In contrast, the formation of a steady-state contact area is almost instantaneous if the counter surface is soft relative to keratin in a dry state. It is for this reason that elastomers are commonly used to coat grip surfaces.

Characterizing and Imaging Gross and Real Finger Contacts under Dynamic Loading.

We describe an instrument intended to study finger contacts under tangential dynamic loading. This type of loading is relevant to the natural conditions when touch is used to discriminate and identify the properties of the surfaces of objects-it is also crucial during object manipulation. The system comprises a high performance tribometer able to accurately record in vivo the components of the interfacial forces when a finger interacts with arbitrary surfaces which is combined with a high-speed, high-definition imaging apparatus. Broadband skin excitation reproducing the dynamic contact loads previously identified can be effected while imaging the contact through a transparent window, thus closely approximating the condition when the skin interacts with a non-transparent surface during sliding. As a preliminary example of the type of phenomenon that can be identified with this apparatus, we show that traction in the range from 10 to 1000 Hz tends to decrease faster with excitation frequency for dry fingers than for moist fingers.

Friction Reduction through Ultrasonic Vibration Part 2: Experimental Evaluation of Intermittent Contact and Squeeze Film Levitation.

In part 1 of the current study of haptic displays, a finite element (FE) model of a finger exploring a plate vibrating out-of-plane at ultrasonic frequencies was developed as well as a spring-frictional slider model. It was concluded that the reduction in friction induced by the vibrations could be ascribed to ratchet mechanism as a result of intermittent contact. The relative reduction in friction calculated using the FE model could be superimposed onto an exponential function of a dimensionless group defined from relevant parameters. The current paper presents measurements of the reduction in friction, involving real and artificial fingertips, as a function of the vibrational amplitude and frequency, the applied normal force and the exploration velocity. The results are reasonably similar to the calculated FE values and also could be superimposed using the exponential function provided that the intermittent contact was sufficiently well developed, which for the frequencies examined correspond to a minimum vibrational amplitude of  âˆ¼ 1 µm P-P. It was observed that the reduction in friction depends on the exploration velocity and is independent of the applied normal force and ambient air pressure, which is not consistent with the squeeze film mechanism. However, the modelling did not incorporate the influence of air and the effect of ambient pressure was measured under a limited range of conditions, Thus squeeze film levitation may be synergistic with the mechanical interaction.

Contact mechanics of the human finger pad under compressive loads.

The coefficient of friction of most solid objects is independent of the applied normal force because of surface roughness. This behaviour is observed for a finger pad except at long contact times (greater than 10 s) against smooth impermeable surfaces such as glass when the coefficient increases with decreasing normal force by about a factor of five for the load range investigated here. This is clearly an advantage for some precision manipulation and grip tasks. Such normal force dependence is characteristic of smooth curved elastic bodies. It has been argued that the occlusion of moisture in the form of sweat plasticises the surface topographical features and their increased compliance allows flattening under an applied normal force, so that the surfaces of the fingerprint ridges are effectively smooth. While the normal force dependence of the friction is consistent with the theory of elastic frictional contacts, the gross deformation behaviour is not and, for commonly reported values of the Young's modulus of stratum corneum, the deformation of the ridges should be negligible compared with the gross deformation of the finger pad even when fully occluded. This paper describes the development of a contact mechanics model that resolves these inconsistencies and is validated against experimental data.